Even though she didn’t have the fire to defeat pioneer Zheng Qinwen on the clay last night, Aryna Sabalenka didn’t hold back when she was stopped and made a fiery remark to the audience.
On Wednesday, Qinwen advanced to the Italian Open semifinals after ultimately defeating Aryna Sabalenka for the seventh time.
In all but one of her six prior meetings with Sabalenka, including the 2024 Australian Open final, the 22-year-old Chinese player had lost handily.
However, it was the eighth time in a row that the world number eight defeated her Belarusian opponent, winning 6-4, 6-3, thanks to a self-assured performance under the Rome lights.
Zheng broke Sabalenka to take a 3-2 lead in the opening set before serving out after fending off early pressure on her own serve.
An already irritated Sabalenka became enraged when the spectators loudly interrupted her during the last game of the first set, with Zheng leading 30-0.
When a spectator was heard making fun of Sabalenka and urging her to “play tennis,” the Belarusian became agitated and responded sharply.
The audience member shouted, “Come on, Aryna, play tennis,” to which Sabalenka replied, “Shut the f*** up.”
https://x.com/TheTennisLetter/status/1922718163621347524
In the same game, Zheng won the first set and then jumped up a break in the second frame during Sabalenka’s opening serve game.
In the sixth and seventh games of the set, Sabalenka showed tenacity by making gritted holds, but she was unable to penetrate Zheng’s serve as the 22-year-old easily advanced to the semifinals.
Later, after defeating Sabalenka, who had been winning nine straight clay-court matches, Zheng credited her patience as the reason she was able to defeat the Madrid Open winner.
“We’ve never played on clay before,” she said. I suppose that since I have so much expertise with clay, I feel more at ease when I play there.
“I had more patience. I’m pleased with how I performed and glad I took the risk of defeating the world champion.”
For a spot in the final, Zheng will compete against Coco Gauff, ranked third in the world.
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